A Better Fate
by MentalMeander
Summary: What Rose was thinking during that scene from Partners in Crime, only with a slight twist. Rose/10.5 Yes, you did read that right Reviews are love!


**A/N: Hullo! So this is fic's pretty different (Actually most of my work's a bit different, but this is my intro and I'll say what I like) in that I've mixed up what most people presume to be the chronology of this scene, without disrupting canon, or whatever the term is. And I think it works. I hope. My main concern with this was that about half way through writing it I realized that it wasn't going to work in the past tense, and moved the storyline into the present tense,which is something I've honestly never worked with before, and is a bit out of my comfort zone. But don't let that put you off! I've read it over about 50 times, and I'm pretty sure everything's working as it should, but if anybody spots something that's a bit off, don't hesitate to mention it in a review. So that's all! Thanks for reading, and whether or not you review, I hope you enjoy it! (Although reviews would be nice *hopeful smile*)  
~M&M**

Disclaimer: If I owned it William Hartnell would still be the Doctor because I'd be too obsessed to let the show change. And then we wouldn't get anywhere, would we?

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One last trip.

That was all she'd asked for, and that was all she was going to get.

But still, the knowledge makes her heart ache, knowing what's just around the corner, and even more important, who's inside it...

Rose grips the railing in front of her, and closes her eyes. "You can't," she whispers to herself, probably attracting more stares than she should. "You can't go to him." Deep down, a small, insignificant piece of her heart continues to ask why not, but she pushes it down with meaningless facts about paradoxes and temporal anomalies, wishing along with it that she really could go to him.

"Gotta go. _Really_, gotta go!" comes a voice from behind her, and she turns, heart skipping a few beats as she recognizes the woman standing only a few metres away. Having noticed the blonde woman staring at her, the object of Rose's attention begins to walk closer.

"Listen," Donna Noble's face is lit with excitement, and it doesn't take Rose any longer to think of a reason why than it takes for Donna to run towards her. "There's this woman; tall, blonde woman called Sylvia." She'd have thought seeing Donna again would make her happy, but as Donna talks, Rose can feel her stomach dropping lower and lower with dread. At the same time bitter memories fill her mind, memories of a tense car ride back to England, memories of what had happened when they'd finally gotten home...

She'd exploded, finally let out the anger and hurt...shouted at him as he tried to comfort her...sobbed uncontrollably as she told him she hated him...and then finally, when there were no more tears to cry and nothing left to say, she'd spoken. She hadn't screamed, or cried out, just inquired softly about what would happen to the two that had left them behind. And he'd told her the truth.

"Tell her," Donna continues, pointing proudly at the garbage bin Rose had watched her drop her keys into. "That bin there." So she'd asked for one last trip, back to her universe, and he hadn't protested. Deep down, something told Rose that he would have never said no, even if she had asked to stay here forever. Not that she could.

_What would you do?_ Rose thinks, directing her thoughts more to Donna than herself. _If you knew what would happen in the end? Would you go with him, and see all those beautiful worlds, save all those planets if you knew you'd only forget them?_

"Alright? It'll make sense, that bin there!" But she'll never know. Because this is it; Donna's running away, and soon Rose will have to go back...back to him. And for the first time in a long while she doesn't know what to do.

She turns around, leaning against the railing and stares off into space, treasuring this one last minute she has to herself before she returns, letting the past sweep her away as she remembers...

It's night-time, and she's in a dark alley, accepting an invitation from someone she's only just met. And she's turning back to the old and familiar with a brave, innocent smile...

"Thanks."

"What for?"

"...Exactly." That's all it takes; one word and a kiss and she's running towards him, all of time and space at her fingers as that blue box keeps getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger.

What would she have done, if she'd known what would happen? If she could have seen herself now, left abandoned twice on a beach with tears streaming down her cheeks and no idea what to do next, would she have gone? She doesn't know anymore than Donna does.

But she likes to think so.

But Donna's different. Donna has nothing; no memories, no time travel, and no him. But Rose...she has something. Something she still can't figure out. Something waiting patiently for her on the other side of reality. Something that loves her. And as much as Rose doesn't want to go, she knows she must, because that something waiting for her is now her fate, whether she likes it or not. And with Donna's smiling face fresh in her mind, Rose decides that she can think of worse fates.

Her time's up. Reluctantly, Rose turns away and begins to walk slowly into the darkness, footsteps sounding against the concrete of the pavement as she walks, echoing through her ears and reminding her that this is real. That thing...that man waiting for her is real, and he's hers. And he loves her. And for one moment, Rose wishes that he was here. Not the Time Lord down the road, but the hybrid that kissed her in Norway, that watched her leave for this universe with scared and uncertain eyes, who she knows won't leave her unless she tells him to. She wishes he was standing next to her, holding her hand and telling her that Donna would have gone even if she knew what would happen, because she was brilliant.

This is it. The air ripples around her; the dimension cannon preparing to pull her back. Tears form in her eyes as she continues to walk, arms spreading slightly in anticipation of the hug she's about to give while she whispers to him that she's sorry...whispers those three words it's now her turn to say.

And no one notices as Rose Tyler disappears from this world for a third time.

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